Who and what would be impacted if Dominion Nuclear Connecticut suddenly announced that Millstone Power Station would be shutting down within the next year?

Initially, not much since you don’t just turn off the plant and walk away. However within four years of the shutdown, the impact is severe.

The information in this article is derived from “Analyzing the Socioeconomic Impacts of Nuclear Power Plant Closures,” a project by Worcester Polytechnic Institute undergraduate students published by WPI in October 2016.

The project looked at four closed nuclear power plants: Crystal River in Florida, Kewaunee in Wisconsin, Maine Yankee in Maine, and Zion in Illinois.

The tax impact alone was startling: the closures of Maine Yankee and Crystal River led to an 85 percent decrease in tax payments. The closure of Zion led to a 58 percent decrease, and the closure of Kewaunee led to a nearly 25 percent decrease.

The lost tax payments were not the only impact on the community. Other major impacts include job loss of the utility workers, increased town financial burden due to reduced taxes, increased residential taxes to partially make up for the utility loss, decrease in the education quality of local schools, lower citizen expenditures and changes to the town’s economic outlook that is reflected in a lower bond rating, and morale.

The suddenness of the plant closure may heighten any and all of the impacts just for the reason that it was unexpected.

When Dominion shut down the Kewaunee Nuclear Power Plant in Wisconsin, Dominion stated that the plant/property was only worth $1.3 million. The Carlton appraisers placed the value of the plant and adjacent property at $457 million.

In negotiations, Dominion offered to value the property at $10 million but officials declined the offer due to their much higher valuation. In January of this year, Kewaunee School District, Kewaunee County and Northeast Wisconsin Technical College agreed to repay $11.9 million within 10 years to settle the dispute since the expectation was that Dominion would win in court and set the valuation of the plant at $1 million. The new assessment in the agreement was $15 million.

Dominion is placing Kewaunee into a SAFSTOR status, which means the plant will be dormant for about 60 years before it is completely removed. This will allow for the radioactivity to become minimal and reduce the cost of final site mitigation.

The closing of Millstone Power Station would also impact the sources of electricity in Connecticut since Millstone currently provides 47 percent of the electricity in Connecticut. Local suppliers for the company and/or its employees will suffer a loss of business and potentially be subject to going out of business themselves due to loss of customers.

The region will also lose the charitable contribution of Dominion Nuclear Connecticut and most of its employees. The town and region will lose volunteer elected officials, volunteer nonprofit board members, volunteer sports coaches, volunteer scout leaders and many other civic involvements by the Dominion employees.

To soften this blow to Waterford, southeastern Connecticut, and the entire state, local leaders must take the initiative before it actually happens to get educated on possible mitigating factors and actions.

To quote the conclusion of the WPI report: “The overall economy will be facing a time of hardship, which has the potential to affect educational institutions, local businesses, and the whole community. Communities with nuclear power plants in the process of being decommissioned need to stay active about addressing the socioeconomic impacts that stem from a closure.”

John W. “Bill” Sheehan is a former Democratic Town Committee chair in Waterford.